The name change represents a “significant transformation”
-- indeed, “we aren’t simply changing
PCG’s name,” members were told, “we have created an identity that will be truly
representative of our industry and people who work independently.”

Despite the changes, Ms Stewart said the organisation
would continue to serve its members, and the cause of its non-members.

IPSE even has its own aims – to make self-employment
central to the economic debate in government and to ensure policies are ‘freelancer-friendly.’

But its accompanying mission statement is straight out of PCG’s original manifesto. With emphasis, the chair
explained that the non-profit organisation “will continue to support all freelancers,
contractors, independent professionals and the self-employed from all areas of
the economy.”

As well as reassuring, Ms Stewart
used the launch of IPSE to remind policy-makers that they could be doing more
to support the 15% of the UK’s workforce who have set out to work for themselves.

“It
is time Government truly recognised the dramatic shift in the way we work in
the UK,” she said. “While there’s never been a better time to work
independently, much can be done to create a level playing field for the people
brave enough to go it alone.”